It all started with theatre. Or, I should be more specific: it all started with poor theatre. I began directing and producing my own plays in high school. I had no job, no money, and fortunately, not enough sense to understand that that I lacked the resources and the knowledge to pull this off. The only thing I did have was the passion to create and the desire to learn by doing (and probably a-few-too-many Mickey Rooney movies as an impressionable kid). I taught myself to create posters initially by standing in the local copy store and literally cutting texts I typed and printed from my Mac SE and images from magazines with scissors and pasting together with a glue stick. By the time I got to college I pirated a copy of Quark (not an easy task) to create page layouts and advertisements for programs. Then in 1995 I got my hands on a copy of Photoshop 3.0. The first version with layers and adjustments and actions, oh my! Type manipulation was basic and boring at the time so I learned to wrangle my typography in Illustrator and import from there. The two programs were young at this point and quite limited in what they each could do; because of that, the learning curve was surprisingly not that steep. My design skills flourished and matured along with those programs. We grew up together in a sense. When I returned to Chico in the spring of 2000 to helm the Blue Room Theatre as Artistic Director I had ten mainstage plays to produce per year along with eight late-nite productions and 4 children’s theatre shows – each needing posters and programs and ad sales to keep the poor theatre running. With no designer on staff, out of necessity, I found myself having to master Pagemaker and later InDesign. To keep the family financially viable I supported my poor theatre habit by lecturing at the university. Until, that is, the great recession of 2008, when all departments were instructed to tighten belts by condensing classes and cutting the fat of extra non-tenured lecturers. The teaching hiring cycle for the upcoming year had past, and honestly, I loved Chico and could not see myself dragging my family Alabama or South Dakota for a year or two of teaching. I made the decision to keep my family in Chico and pivot immediately into another career. My two greatest strengths outside of directing theatre were being nearly unbeatable at the game of Risk, and a deep and passionate knowledge of Photoshop. Before I could test the market for a professional Risk player, I was quickly employed at a small local sign shop designing logos for small businesses. Shortly after that, I was giving the opportunity to join the graphic design team at Auctiva, building Ebay sales templates. From there I transplanted to Fifth Sun to make sick Star Wars t-shirts and head up the design for the marketing department. While working in the private sector was enjoyable, I knew I belonged working for a non-profit or service company. At the end of the day, whether I am creating theatre or a brochure, I am doing it to create a better community – not to make someone some money. SO with that conviction in mind I was able to secure a job as in-shop designer for Printing Services at CSU, Chico. A beautiful campus, a friendly community, and a mission that I whole-heartedly support.